Blending history and wine

The Winery at Bull Run opens in Centreville this weekend

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
The original house that was located on The Winery at Bull Run's property was named Hillwood. It was destroyed by a fire but has come back to life as an outdoor deck.

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
President of The Winery at Bull Run, Jon Hickox.

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
The original house that was located on The Winery at Bull Run's property was named Hillwood. It was destroyed by a fire but has come back to life as an outdoor deck.

Winery opening

The grand opening for The Winery at Bull Run is scheduled for Saturday. The winery, 15950 Lee Highway, Centreville, is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.For more information, visit www.wineryatbullrun.com.

The wine country of southwestern Fairfax County is continuing to expand.

The county’s second winery, The Winery at Bull Run in Centreville, will open its doors to the public this weekend, joining Clifton’s Paradise Springs Winery in bringing the Virginia wine industry closer to home those who live in Washington, D.C. and the inner suburbs.

Given the location adjacent to the Manassas National Battlefield Park, The Winery at Bull Run president Jon Hickox said it was important to him to incorporate and pay tribute to local history as part of his winery.

In addition to making local history a design theme for his winery, Hickox, who spent much of his childhood in the Burke area, said he wants to educate people about Virginia’s winemaking history and recreate the feel of agricultural life in 1800s Fairfax County.

“Virginia’s place in wine history is very little known or understood,” he said.

Later on, he hopes to incorporate living history demonstrations both about winemaking and the Civil War era.

“Teaching history while drinking wine — I think that makes for a pretty cool experience,” Hickox said.

The winery’s outdoor deck incorporates what is left of the stone foundation and chimney of the house that once sat on the property, known as Hillwood. The house burned down in the 1980s.

When Hickox, who also owns Colonial Remodeling, purchased the 21-acre property on Lee Highway in 2008, it had been neglected for years as the prior owner was hoping to get it rezoned for heavy commercial use. The former farm property housed the ruins of the old Hillwood house and some dilapidated outbuildings.

“Everything had been overgrown and abandoned for essentially almost 30 years,” Hickox said. “I had to do a lot of clearing and a lot of cleaning up.”

Getting the property and the soil back in shape for an active agricultural use also took some work. It is now planted with Norton grapes, the type of grape that grows best in Virginia.

Supervisor Michael Frey (R-Sully) said he is excited to have a winery in his district, but also a bit skeptical about the prospect of growing wine grapes here.

“With the soil that we have around here, thinking that we’re going to get a great crop of grapes, I hope it’s not just wishful thinking,” he said.

Hickox is more optimistic. He also owns farmland in Culpeper and said that, as his vines mature, he hopes eventually to be able to grow all of his own grapes.

“Which is an ambitious goal. Most wineries don’t work that way,” he said.

Despite his newfound enthusiasm for the Virginia wine industry, Hickox actually purchased the property as an investment without really knowing what he was going to do with it. Opening a winery was one consideration but, at the time, there were no wineries in Fairfax County and he wasn’t up for being a trailblazer.

Around that same time, Kirk Wiles was trying to open Paradise Springs.

“He was willing to hit it head on, I was a little more conservative. … I wasn’t prepared for that fight,” Hickox said. “He went through that battle and I give him credit.”

Paradise Springs initially experienced some pushback from its residential neighbors in Clifton, who were concerned about droves of winery visitors traversing the narrow, winding roads there.

The Winery at Bull Run has the opposite situation — no residential neighbors to speak of and an entrance that is located on a main highway, which presents its own challenges, Frey said. The entrance is at the start of the deceleration lane for one of the battlefield parking areas, and is also near the entrance for a rock quarry.

However, as a strong supporter of historic preservation, Frey said there are also definite benefits to the community in that regard.

“Keeping it open and in agriculture is I think certainly compatible with the battlefield,” he said.